25th Anniversary - Part 1 - COBA, Mayan Adventure

David and I celebrated our 25th anniversary by taking a trip to the Mayan Riviera in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. We stayed at Gran Bahia Principal in Akumal, a wonderful all-inclusive resort, and we took side-trips to a couple of sites of Mayan ruins. This post is of our side-trip to Coba.

It was a VERY humid day, as were many of our days there, which added an extra dimension to the hiking and climbing!

We decided to be "Dutch" (which we are) and walk the 4km round trip to the big pyramid, Nohoch Mul, before climbing it. Given the humidity and the strenuousness of the climb I wish we'd been a little more willing to spend and had gotten one of these limousines, but, ah well . . .

Getting ready to ascend the 42m (138ft) pyramid . . .

Looking down from where I'm seated near the top - at times the climb seemed almost vertical.

Looking out over the jungle canopy

Can you see the other ruins rising above the jungle canopy? Can you see the tiny people at the bottom?

This climb was really something, and especially the way back down! The steps are uneven, which doesn't help!

Here are some other sites at Coba. We had to rush pretty fast since our tour also included an "adventure" at a Mayan village some distance from here. I hope to look up more information on Coba and learn about these sites after the fact!

The three pictures below are of the ball-court (actually there were two ball courts at this site). The second two pictures are behind the ball court. I just love how the tree is taking over with its roots.

We rappelled into a cenote. I was actually a little scared but was too hot and tired after the hike through the jungle and the climb up Nohoch Mul to protest or feel too much fear, and the water below did sound very inviting. Below we have one last kiss before entering the darkness. In the third picture below you can see people at the bottom on tubes in the water.

Zip-lining was tons of fun, and across the second course (bottom two pictures) we were actually above crocodile "infested" waters :-)